Category «Tips»

When looking for family camping tents, there are several things that you need to consider. You don’t want to wait till you are at your camping destination to find out that the tent you have chosen will not meet the needs of you and your family.

Determining the Size of Your Tent

One of the first things you need to decide is how big of a tent you and your family will need. You will be using your tent for more than just sleeping in. You will need enough room for not only your bedding but your clothing and personal items as well.

You will be using your tent for getting dressed in the morning or changing your clothes throughout the day. Your tent may also provide a place for the kids to play if the weather turns bad and it starts to rain.

Choosing the Style of Family Camping Tents

There are many styles of camping tents on the market, and you need to determine which style will be best for your family’s needs.

Cabin Tent

The cabin tent is one of the more modern tents on the market and is the type of tent that you will see the most in campgrounds and other camping destinations. It is rectangular in shape and depending on the size of the tent can sleep up to 10 people. The cabin tent is also one of the easier tents to set up.

Dome Tent

The dome tent is also famous in family camping tents and is usually used for smaller families of around 3 or 4. The dome tent gets its name from the dome shape it has and comes in sizes that will sleep anywhere from 2 – 8 people.

Of all the camping sporting goods on your list, this one has to be one of the top items on your list. Too many times I see people out camping without any tarps and many times they will give up after the first night and head home.

Even if it doesn’t rain, the moisture and cold from the ground will seep up through the bottom of your tent and get everything wet. Even the moisture in the air at night can make your tent wet enough to create condensation in your tent and make your gear damp or even wet.

That is why it is very important to place a tarp both under your tent and above your tent, even if there is no rain in sight. I always bring a few extra tarps to use throughout the camp site just in case.

Cooking Gear And Utensils:

Now this is going to depend on what you bring along to eat but you want to make sure that you bring along the proper gear to not only cook the food that you bring along, but also the proper gear to serve and eat the food as well.

I won’t go into everything you would need here as I have put together a very good Camping Checklist that you can use as a guide.

Some Good Camping Games:

The camping games that you bring along on your camping trip will depend on weather you have a group of all adults, or you have both adults and kids in your camping. Camping games are a very important part of your camping sporting goods as these can take a good camping trip and turn it into a great camping trip.

Camping supplies could cover a vast amount of things, such as an ax, wood, food, tents, sleeping bags and even a cook stove. Here we will cover such items as fire wood, an ax, food and other supplies you would stock up on when going camping. Other items such as tents, sleeping bags and cook stoves will be covered under Camping Gear.

Let’s take a look at some of the more important camping supplies that you will want to make sure you bring along on all of your camping trips.

Can Opener

You may laugh at this one, but the can opener is one of the most forgotten items when going camping. I have found myself more then once trying to open a can with a knife which is not the safest thing to do. In my early days of camping, I even used a rock once to open a can of soup. So make sure that you have a can opener on your list of camping supplies.

Fire Wood

There is something about sitting around a camp fire in the evening or early morning that makes a camping trip more special. The kids just love to make s’mores when we go camping and I always place the coffee pot next to the fire to keep it nice and warm in the morning. Be sure to check the fire regulations in the area that you will be camping as some areas don’t allow open fires during certain times of the year.

Ax or Hatchet

These always come in handy to chop up bigger pieces of fire wood and cutting wood into smaller pieces to be used as kindling. I have even used my ax to cut a tent pole or two when one or more of the tent poles were

My favorite campground is South Higgins Lake State Park campground. This is one of two campgrounds around this lake, but I think this one is much nicer and more developed and modernized, which is what my family prefers when camping.

It is filled with fun activities to do with friends and family. There is a beautiful, fairly good sized lake to swim, boat, water-ski, jet-ski, fish, and relax by.

There are also many trails for biking or hiking around the lake, some of which I hear go all the way around the huge lake. And there are some playgrounds for the little ones to swing or slide too.

There are also campsites with electrical hookups. Campsites also include fire pits and a picnic table. The bathrooms are clean and very nice, and the campground as a whole is kept very tidy and beautiful year-round.

I enjoy the water and the landscape a lot and there are planned nature walks with the park rangers at certain times during the week which are informational and full of different types of wildlife.

There is a little shop where you can rent boats and they have a bit of supplies, and also candy. There is also a cute little town area very close by where you can grab a bite to eat, or bait and fishing supplies or a nice ice cream treat.

I go here once a year with my parents and sisters, and we meet up with a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins for about a week of camping.

It is a very fun and relaxing time, there is much to do and if you don’t want to do anything there are many places to enjoy relaxing and laying around.

Ladder toss, also known as bolo toss is a fun camping game that was introduced to me a few years ago at a friends pig roast. It consists of a frame that resembles a ladder and two sets of three bolos that are made form two golf balls attached to either end of a piece of rope or shoe string.

The game is played by two or more people standing about 15 feet form the ladder and each taking turns throwing all three of their bolos at the 3 ladder steps. You can move the throwing line closer if you are playing with children.

After everyone has thrown their bolos, only those bolos that are wrapped around, or hanging from one of the ladder steps can be eligible for scoring points.

If one of the bolos thrown by the second player lands on the same ladder step of one of the bolos thrown by the first player, then no points are given for the bolos on that ladder step.

The bottom step counts for one point, two points for the center step and three points if your bolo ends up on the top step. The winner is the first person or team that reaches 21.